Training, PhD Studies Are A Natural Fit For Paralympian Sydney Peterson

Sydney Peterson typically spends her winters on snow and her summers hidden away in a research lab.

A three-time Paralympic medalist in cross-country skiing, Peterson wants to learn as much as she can about the inner workings of the human body. She graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, and she’s now pursuing a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Utah.

Constantly in search of answers, Peterson, 23, has worked in a biochemistry lab, a biophysics lab and a genetics lab over the past few years. And she has a full-time job this summer in a lab that’s looking at certain drugs to determine if they could be used to combat diseases that they weren’t intended to treat.

“I guess I’ve always been interested in math and science, and then combined with my own personal experience with a neurological disease, (it has) led me into research,” said Peterson, who has a neurological disorder that affects the left side of her body. “And then from there, it just led me down the path to pursuing a PhD in neuroscience.”

Peterson, a native of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, didn’t want to take a break from conducting research this summer just because the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 are less than a year away. She has managed to juggle her lab work with her training as a standing skier and a member of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing national team.

Should she qualify for Milano Cortina in March, Peterson said her plan is to leave school for a few weeks to race in Italy before returning to continue working toward her PhD.

“I don’t take any of it really too seriously. I just try and have fun with it,” Peterson said. “There are definitely times when you wake up early to get training in before going in (to the lab), but I just find ways to make it work. I enjoy the training and the process of it, so it’s not really like the training is work to me. It’s just part of my life, and I love to do it.”

Three years ago, Peterson made her Winter Paralympic debut in Beijing. She was so new to Para Nordic skiing at the time that she needed a special invitation from the World Para Nordic Skiing and the International Paralympic Committee to be allowed to compete.

Peterson received the special invitation six days before her 20th birthday and only three weeks before the start of the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics. She then earned three medals in cross-country skiing, including a gold as a member of the U.S. mixed relay team.

“I just really love the process of skiing and do it for the enjoyment,” Peterson said.

In May, Peterson was among a group of athletes who took part in a training camp that U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing hosted in Bend, Oregon. It was her first time attending the training camp, which is held every offseason and provides the nation’s top Para Nordic skiers with one more chance to get on snow before summer arrives.

“It was fun to get to ski on snow in May,” she said. “It was nice to get to have an extended winter.”

Peterson spent several days skiing and practicing her rifle shooting for the biathlon in Bend. She also reunited with Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins, who’s the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history and a fellow graduate of Stillwater Area High School in the northeast Twin Cities suburbs.

Since Diggins is 10 years older than Peterson, the two skiers were never in the same class in high school. But Peterson sometimes saw Diggins, who won multiple state championships for Stillwater, at her practices with the Ponies’ cross-country skiing team.

“She would come back and occasionally lead some high school practices or come back and show up to a practice once in the fall every now and then,” Peterson said.

In March, Diggins won the FIS Cross Country World Cup overall title for a second consecutive year. She quickly got back to training and was skiing in Bend at the same time Peterson was there with her teammates.

The official Instagram account for U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing shared a photograph of Diggins and Peterson — two of their high school’s most famous alumni — posing together while in Bend.

In the meantime, Peterson said she still has a long way to go before she earns her PhD from Utah. She recently completed the first year of her PhD program, but when she graduates, she’ll join sit skier Nicole Zaino as doctors who compete for Team USA. 

Zaino, who’s a member of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing development team, has a doctorate in mechanical engineering.

For Peterson, skiing isn’t necessarily a much-needed escape from the workload that comes with her PhD program. She instead said her training as a standing skier complements school very well.

“It’s nice to have the balance,” Peterson said. “I’m just a very active person, and so I like to move my body outside. It’s a fun way to go explore the mountains and get to be out riding bikes or running in the mountains or roller skiing the canyons.”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.